Box Office - Big Weekends for 'Inception' and 'Salt'

A terrific week for people who love movies, from the big doings in San Diego at Comic-Con to the box office, where Christopher Nolan's Inception had a huge win over a very competitive Angelina Jolie and Salt. The movies combined to made $80 million, both meeting or beating their pre-weekend expectations. That's pretty rare and it points to the great word of mouth for Inception and the fact that sometimes movie stars (Angelina Jolie) really are game changers. For Inception, it means a second frame drop of only $19 million, a drop of just about 30%, and that's atypical. It should mean the film will enjoy a very long life at the box office, but it could also mean people were wary about it on opening weekend, got reassurance that it was good, and checked it out. If it's still holding 50% or more next weekend, then this thing will make money through Labor Day. Nolan's film is at $140 million and change after ten days, a very good number considering how hard it could have been to sell a movie like this. Again, we'll wait to see what next weekend looks like in terms of a long-term benchmark, but it could get to $240 million or more if it doesn't drop over 40% or so next weekend. I'm sure that's a dream scenario - pardon the pun - for Warner Bros. Salt did great. No other way to put it. It's Angelina Jolie's fourth-biggest live-action opening, behind Wanted, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, and the first Tomb Raider. Those all hit $50 million or close to it, but Sony making $36.5 million here has to be thrilled. Jolie is one of the few bankable women at the movies, but she hasn't made very many bankable movies of late, and with this kind of fire-breathing competition Salt is facing, it's a real win. Not just for this movie, but for the franchise opportunity that the narrative in the film clearly points to. There's a pretty big budget for this one, mostly because of all the stuff they destroyed and the fact that Angelina went out and earned her paycheck, so Salt is not out of the woods yet, but with international receipts, it actually could be a pretty stout worldwide performer. But the sequel will probably get the go ahead very soon thanks to this weekend. Imagine what it could do, the pitch will go, without an Inception right in front of it. Despicable Me, now in its third weekend, did more fantastic business, and now sits at over $160 million. Remember, while Pixar and Dreamworks movies cost $150 - $200 million, Despicable Me was a $70 million production, so that number we always bring up - three times the production budget to be considered a hit for the studio - is definitely in the cards here. Foreign receipts are just gravy for this one. The Top Five:
1 - Inception ($43.5 million)
2 - Salt ($36.5 million)
3 - Despicable Me ($24.1 million)
4 - The Sorcerer's Apprentice ($9.6 million)
5 - Toy Story 3-D ($9 million)